So I've been discussing this with one of my classmates. We had to write a simple "Secrets of Weight Loss" plan, and me and her had totally different views on the matter. She was suggesting a healthy balanced diet while I was suggesting an all out chocolate only based diet (with cigarettes and water as filler).

When I came to Korea, I couldn't believe how cheap food was. And not only that, but healthy food, like vegetables and boiled meat, were as cheap as a bar of chocolate, while junk food was twice as expensive. So I started eating a combination of vegetables, chicken, fish and rice. Lots and lots of rice (which is almost free here, omgosh!). I was eating more than back home in Ro (where food is expensive!) but it felt more natural, and my lifestyle was far more active, as I was running around town, meeting people, having fun and the likes. I felt I had more strength, I was feeling very well, it was great change from the times I had back home, staying inside for days and eating chocolate and potato chips.

Not for my body, though. When I was in Ro, not doing any exercise and eating chocolate all day, I lost weight. And now, I eat three complete meals a day while maintaining a more active lifestyle, and am gaining weight. I think i gained 5kg since I came to Korea, and might gain more in the future. Taking this into account, is the standard-diet method really worth following? I remember googling diets and got all sorts of stupid suggestions that seemed to take away all small daily pleasures. Some guy on Cracked also wrote that dieting, for real, is a real ordeal, and takes lots of willpower. This is completely false. The best diet is the one that most fits your body, your personality, but most people choose to follow diet advice that doesn't fit them at all, and struggle.

The secret? Don't eat what and how others tell you, eat what you crave for but in small amounts! My friends in Bucharest lost weight eating potato chips. But they ate one pack a day. I also lost weight with chocolate, but I ate one bar a day. I tried following the advice of others, sticking to a healthy diet without chocolate and fat, eating in the morning and cutting food in the evenings, and as you would expect, it turned out terrible. Also, I tried eating one or two sandwiches a day, mostly in the morning, because many of my friends said skipping meals in the evening helped them a lot, and, surprise, I gained weight.

Forcing yourself is not the way, chocolate diet all the way! (made a small poem there, not intended) Screw vegetables, meat, salads (that I don't have time to make anyway) magic cocktails, voodoo mixes and the like. Eat what you like, in small amounts, and when you want. Don't listen to others and do what your body tells you. You won't be stressing yourself, and you'll probably see some results. ... Or maybe not, but it's worth a try, don't you think?

I wish to go back to my old habits, even though the chocolate diet might leave me tired after a week. But the hardest part is that chcolate is so damn expensive here in Korea, and my budget encourages me to buy 1000 won hamburgers for breakfast! Nonetheless, it's one of my resolutions for 2011, so let's hope that goes slightly well, at least.

It would appear Activision is releasing a sequel to Prototype, featuring the return of big boy Alex Mercer. DEAR GOD YES!

2010 had been all but interesting. Having lost my interest in WoW, I pretty much couldn't find anything in the entertainment area to catch my eye. Until I got my hands on Prototype, and was utterly captivated by the story (albeit, I considered it t be a tad cheesy at first, with the whole memory-loss thing, but the plot eventually evolved into something completely unexpected) and by the main character, which bears an uncanny resemblance to my shady Alex Masters, a character from the good ol' days. Anyway, the game is set for a 2012 release. I'll be eagerly waiting!

I've also tried a bit of Dragon Age: Origins recently, and while I'll have to admit it's quite captivating, I seriously didn't get why people praised it so much. It's nice to play, but I didn't feel the game provided much freedom of choice (the areas are not quite what you'd call free roam) and no matter what happens, you're still forced to be the good guy, saving the kingdom from the forces of evil. The characters were brilliant however, hats off to that. Alistairrrr~!

On a side note, up to this point I had no idea Prototype was first designed by Sierra Entertainment. Activision is sure gobbling up 'em gaming companies it seems.

Decided to skip ye old going to the shop to buy an item habit in favor of internet shopping. Needless to say, I spent about 4 hours simply trying to figure out how to send the damn payment in (I was shopping for a new computer, might I add). In the end, though, I came to the conclusion  I'd spend the whole day and not solve anything anyway (even the guy at the customer counseling center advised me to give up after spending 30 minutes on the phone) so it's off to the shop in person and, not to my surprise, it took a lot less time than using the internet did.

Now, related to that. I've been stuck on this site of a University I need to apply to, looking for an application form. For days I've been looking for it, actually. Like it'd be hard to just post a link named 'Application Form' that lets you download the thing instead of hiding it somewhere in the site. Hope I make it in time to submit "the applications for review of your documentations" and maybe I can start "design human capability of world level" in this highly professional academic environment that quotes "We turns on different idea and catch down future ideal". (official quotes there, and I have more of needed) But, well, few other universities have it even worse, I guess: some have 2 or 3 forms and you have seriously no idea which one to choose.

Alright, I'm writing this with one hand because I'm quite comfortably resting my head on the other as I'm sitting in bed typing. It's relaxing, but writing in capitals is a bit problematic, and my speed ain't so good either. Can't be arsed, though. Won't get up. Gonna make this quick anyway.

I just had to point out how amazing Disturbed's recent album is. 'Indestructible' is the name. I've been hooked on a few songs from that album for months now, without ever being bored. Now, I've been listening to Disturbed for around 7 to 8 years, and I still remember the good old times, when an mp3 player was still pretty high-tech, and people still used CD-players. In those times, I'd gather a heap of CD's (pirated, sadly), and among my favorites were Disturbed tracks, of course. Man, it's been a long time. Their style never gets old.

Also, how sexy is this:Sure, it kind of looks like a Bob Marley / Rammstein hybrid, but oh dear lord, white eyes, and that look! (Must get contacts - NOW!) To be fair, I'd heard about hed p.e. a long time ago, but I guess I misinterpreted their lyrics, thinking they were Christian rockers, and just didn't develop any interest in them. Perhaps the fact that they're named Planet Earth had a part to play in this. Will be checking them out for sure.

And, last but not least - Mushroomhead! They surprise me with every new song, really.

PS: I should probably buy the CD's of the bands I like, for once. But which store in South Korea would actually sell rock music anyway? :P

In the Europe, where I come from, countries strive for harmonious relationships, they try to cooperate with one another and form a peaceful environment to nurture the tolerance mentality. Probably all except, Romania, the bane of the EU, whose gypsy problem is raising a bit of tension. But, somehow I feel it's not such a dangerous issue, even though it's giving our country a bad reputation. Why don't I feel so concerned about this?

Check out China, Japan and Korea. Asia's 'big dudes' (which, in my view, seem to have a more hierarchical relationship, rather than one of equality) and the diplomatic ties between them feel anything but harmonious, and, at least from what mass-media shows, things might not be mellowing down for the time being. When I came to Korea, I was glad that I could have an inside scoop of what's really going between these countries.

On one side, the youth of Asia (big chunk of the population) don't feel any tension. They only see the good side of things. Japan's youth loves say, Chinese pop stars, Korean dramas, while Chinese love Japan's anime, as well as Koreans. So I won't lie and say these countries are completely hostile to one another. But the older generation, and the government think slightly different.

About a month ago, some incident occurred in the East China sea, with a Chinese boat crashing into a Japanese coast patrol. Japanese claim it was their land, but I'm pretty certain it's not just the Chinese dude who thought those were China's. That's one, for the sake of giving an example. These whole incidents going on in East Asia's waters have much to do with dispute over islands. Once country gets the islands officially, but then other refuses to accept defeat and starts preaching to its people 'That's our land, why do you say it's yours! We'll write in our history books that it's our land!' There are a lot of islands to fight over, so these disputes could go on forever. There is also that incident with Dokdo, smack in-between Korea and Japan, which the two countries still fight over, even though it is technically stated that they're Korean soil.

Dokdo is a very big issue in Korea. When this it is mentioned, Koreans get that patriotic look in their eyes, because, hell, it's their ancient, beloved land! I can imagine it now, the people of Dokdo, proud Koreans, living simple agrarian lives, raising their young in kind, loving spirit, playing in the grass, admiring the sea's crimson sunset, since before time. The glorious seemingly infinite rice fiel -- oh, wait. How big was this island, actually?


Are you fucking serious? Two damn big rocks sticking out of the water? All these disputes, all this propaganda, all this nationalism for this? In Korea, they make posters, coffee cups, T-shirts, post cards with this island, that is apparently such an important piece of land. I really, do not see why.

The Liancourt Rocks, as they are called internationally (damn straight, that's what they are ... rocks y'know) also known as Dokdo/Takeshima in Korean/Japanese (both written with the character 'island' because ... damn, y'know) are pretty much useless, so I really can't see what all the fuss is about. If I were on either side and have a say, I'd screw it all and go 'have them, they're just rocks lol'

That isn't all, though. Many other of these so-called islands, people are so desperate to get their hands on, are uninhabited, small bits of land who have little to no use, other than providing fishing spots (easily solved if you have a boat, though) or seemingly being coast guard outposts for keeping an eye out on neighboring countries.  This issue would be solved with a bit of tolerance from both the countries' part, I think. But governments are governments, they keep being absurd, and they keep spectators like me entertained with their quarrels.

The language center does not  really feel like an academic environment, and it most certainly does not teach us much about the true face of Korea. We mostly discuss what movies, dramas, food, members of the opposite sex we like, and sneak in a bit of Korean culture here and there. Kindergarden all over again, I tell you! So last night I say, damn all this fooling around, I'm going to write a very well documented, model of a presentation as my assignment for our Language class, that would actually look like a college student's work, related to Korean mentality and culture. I don't claim my knowledge to be broad in this field, so I merely aimed for a slight overview of the most important concepts.

How did that turn out? Looking back at last night's events, I think I should have done it quicker for some reason.

7 p.m.      
Arrived home, light internet browsing.

8 p.m.
Hungry. Dinner break.

8:30 p.m.
Found spare cash. Off to a PC Bang to play WoW.

10 p.m.     
Came back home, researched priest dispel mechanics.

10:15 p.m.
Watched priest videos on Youtube.

10:30 p.m.
Browsed youtube channels. Watched some Starcraft videos.

12:00 a.m.
Looked up Kerrigan.

12:10 a.m.
Browsed the ultimate video game villain charts.

12:45 a.m.
Watched nerd rage videos.

1 a.m.       
Googled Korean cultural concepts.

1:40 a.m.
Searched Flickr for pictures to include in presentation. Found pictures of the Korean war.

2:00 a.m. 
Stumbled upon pictures of Japan. Got curious. Searched for more Japan pictures.

2:20 a.m. 
Commenced research on presentation. Managed to find less than expected.

2:39 a.m.
Conclusion: continue looking tomorrow.

2:40 a.m.
Bath.

3 a.m.
Sleep.

The up side of procrastinating is that I found out how the nice Chinese handled domestic violence:

It's never easy to delete your characters and just leave it all behind, even if you're like me and have moments when you briskly decide to delete all your characters ... few times. I've been inclined to make such decisions even more often than that, heck. It's not only the fact that you get the feeling that deleting your character, which is your own unique reflection in-game, is like removing a small portion of your self, but the fact that you are leaving the people you've bonded with behind. It's a tough decision, but sometimes, it happens for a good reason.

I started playing the Korean version of WoW a few months after I settled in here, hoping that, not only would it help improve my language level, but it would help me make Korean friends and possibly speed up my blending in Korean society. The first two months, I leveled and did instances alone,  and speeding through the ruckus that is Norgannon, I finally made the decision it was time to find a home in WoW and make friends. And so, I found a nice cozy corner on the server, a guild which also had a forum, and close to 10 raiding members who would run a casual Icecrown every once in a while.  Koreans are very welcoming towards strangers, and I was not shunned out, but rather welcomed to their runs.

Then in comes one of my guildies, CreepyWoWDude, who went by another name in game, but who found his way in my mobile phone book, through means that I will shamefully mention later, under this nickname. Koreans are very curious, and many asked about my gender, my nationality and my age, to the point where I just decided to give out slight bits of this information, assuring myself that being straightforward is fundamental in their culture, and this way of behaving would only make me blend in. 

Next thing you know, CreepyWoWDude sends me a whisper one day, asking me if I wanted a boost on my alt. I told him that I couldn't at that particular moment, only to be whispered again the following day, and the day after that. In the end, I accepted the offer, and regarded him as helpful. That is, until he asked me to give him my picture in exchange for the help. I was baffled. He was 31, an adult at the average marriage age in Korea, and the very thought of what he might be doing with my printed picture in his hand gave me the shivers. In the end, I com give him my phone number, as I saw a number of other guildies had made their numbers public in their guild notes.

I could say that made him happy, for a little while, but in the end he just got more curious. He would whisper me every time I logged on, questions ranging from "Can I come visit you?" to "Do you have a boyfriend?" and the likes. Any normal person would have found this irritating, to say the least, but I don't think he had the slightest clue how annoying he was. He said he liked me, at which point I told him I thought that was scary. After finding me a spot in a Halion raid, he went back to his good old fetish, insistingly asking for my photo. Countless times. As in: "Can I have your picture? No? Ok. Can I have it now? How about now? Okay, now?"

And so it happened. I snapped and deleted my character, he whispered me on my low level alt, asking "What did I do wrong?". Ignore. Proceed to delete alt. 

To be fair, there are many other things I didn't like about the way WoW has been developing as of late, and this was just one more incentive to lay off the crack. Since I might not have time to play anyway in the near future, and finding Icecrown groups by camping /LFG for hours is getting pretty tiresome, I guess it's best to just cut it for now. It's a pity that I couldn't spend more time with the other guildies, they were really nice people, for the most part.

To get right to the point: It would seem that a great Cataclysm will be taking away my beloved tree away. Now I've been silent about this for a long time, but seeing that many other druids are against the change, I have a slight belief that something might be done. Slightly.

Now, I'm not one to complain about mechanics, a change is refreshing once in a while. But when you mess with character appearance and make one look uglier, it just spoils the fun you had playing. Looks are very important to me. I like seeing the avatar of total badass in front of me whenever I play, it makes me feel more powerful, it boosts my morale, so to speak. It also makes my gaming experience more fun, which is, as I hear, the key philosophy of Blizzard designers.

Most people confuse this with resto druids not preferring cooldown based healing, as opposed to the passive-like healing style we're more used to. That is not the case (but it certainly fills up a lot of pages on the WoW forums). No, this is just about looks.

On the other hand, some players feel better seeing their original character appearance. Well, actually quite a lot of players seem to think that way (why do there have to be so many night elf females?!). And that should pose quite a bit of a challenge to Blizzard who try to make everything equal for all in the World of ... Utopian Warcraft. So, how to make all players happy?

1. New tree models. They are already working on insanely killer tree models to go with the new Cataclysm cooldown. Why not just replace the old form with the new one?
2. Glyph of How-I-used-to-look-in-WotLK. Heh heh he- No really. Blizzard stated there is around 1% chance they might actually implement a cosmetic glyph to keep the old tree form appearance. And, as weird as this sounds, I think this is the only shot tree lovers have of ever keeping their old form.

------------------------------------------------

Might be the song I've been listening to, or the fact that I've been pondering this thing for so long, or perhaps the fact that it's 3 A.M. and I had too much coffee again, that drives me to write it. How knows?

Empa signing out.

It feels amazing when you know you're completely out of money, and then somehow manage to stumble upon a large bill hidden behind one of your books. Yep, yep. I'ma having cooked food for lunch tomorrow!

Anyway, apart from that. Blimey, how can it be so hot at 3 A.M.!? The air is humid, my skin feels sticky, and breathing is difficult. Summer in Seoul! Well, not like living at the ground floor helps in any way, and, as a matter of fact, neither does not keeping the air conditioner off. But who can blame me, that thing has never been cleaned, and I don't know how to do it myself. (Okay, note to self: Google it later).

And finally. Only a few months left before the new WoW expansion is out and I'm feeling the nostalgia kickin' in (Arthas! Noo! *sob*) It was an amazing expansion, despite all the BS. The graphics, the music, the atmosphere, they were all superior to previous expansions, and, as such, I must say Blizzard really outdid themselves on this one.